Pachauri says he will not resign even if UN panel finds fault

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) IPCC chief R K Pachauri, who
came in for sharp criticism after the climate change panel
goofed on its prediction on melting of Himalayan glaciers, has
said he will not step down even if a UN-constituted review
committee finds fault with the procedures followed by it.
"Certainly not. But we will certainly implement any
constructive recommendations that we get (from the UN
committee). As matter of fact, I would be responsible for
implementing the recommendations. How can I walk away from
that?," Pachauri said.
He was asked whether he would consider stepping down
if the UN-constituted Inter-Academic Council review was to
come to the conclusion that proper procedures have not been
followed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
Accepting moral responsibility for the error in the
fourth assessment report which had claimed that the Himalayan
glaciers would melt by 2035, Pachauri said he also accepts the
responsibility placed on him by the world governments by
electing him as IPCC Chairman.
"Well, I certainly accept moral responsibility. But I
also accept the responsibility that all the governments of
the world have placed on my shoulders, and that's by
essentially electing me as chairperson by acclamation," he
told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's 'Devil's Advocate' programme.
Asked whether he was 'determined' to finish his term
ending in 2015, he said he will not withdraw from the task
assigned to him.
"I have a task, I have a mission to end the fifth
assessment report and I am not certainly not going to withdraw
from that," he said.
To a poser on whether it was a system failure, he
maintained it was more of a "procedural failure" and said, "We
will do everything humanly possible to ensure that the error
in the fourth report is not there in the fifth report."
"Absolutely", was his reply to a question on whether
one single failure was being 'taken out of proportion'.
"Absolutely. One error does not dilute the findings of
the IPCC that the glaciers are melting," he said.
Asked whether he felt embarrassed by UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon setting up a committee of top scientists
to review IPCC, he said, "That is wrong."
"Let me correct that. That is something that the IPCC
has initiated. We wrote a letter to all the governments on
February 16 saying that we would like to set up a review
committee to look into our procedures and practices and then
we joined hands with the Secretary General of the UN.
"You can look into the documentation, and the letter
to the Inter-Academic Council has been jointly signed by Mr
Ban Ki-moon and me. It is wrong to say that the Secretary
General has ordered something." PTI NAB
MYR